Anglo-Japanese Furniture and the Cult of Japan

Robin Spencer

he public were able to see restrained and sensible
furniture at the International Exhibition of 1862, when
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (founded in
1861) showed examples of their work. Christopher Dresser
was able to remark on the ingenious construction of one
or two "stained and gilded drawing-room chairs" but could
not "commend them as works of beauty." The round table
by Philip Webb (No. 307) is an example of the early furniture of the Morris School; it is both revolutionary
and traditional.

Bruce Talbert, the most influential commercial designer
in the Gothic idiom, began his career with structurally
honest though often highly elaborate work. A magnificent
sideboard of his, made by Holland and Son, was shown
at the Paris Exhibition of 1867; it had the same quality of
architecture in miniature that we associate with the
furniture of William Burges. Shortly after the 1867
Exhibition Talbert published his Gothic Forms applied to
Furniture where he demonstrated the possibilities of his
adaptations of the Gothic style, the bookcase (No. 305)
dates from this period. In 1876 in Examples of Ancient and
Modern Furniture, we can see how Talbert abandoned
his over-emphatically Gothic style and adopted a style in
keeping with the change in fashion, though still
unmistakably his. Examples of wallpapers in the same
book show the influence of Japanese pattern design.

Left: Satinwood cabinet designed by E. W. Godwin.

Right: Folding screen attributed to
W. Eden Nesfield

The Exhibition of 1862, as well as marking a distinct
improvement in general taste, also gave England its first
real chance to see a selection of Japanese designs when
Sir Rutherford Alcock (1809-97), the first British Consul
General in Japan, showed the collection he had acquired
during his stay in Japan. Designers were excited by
Alcock's exhibits. The folding screen of 1867, attributed to
W. Eden Nesfield (No. 298), represents one of the earliest
essays in what E. W. Godwin was to call the
"Anglo-Japanese" style. The screen is remarkable for its
confident use of Japanese motifs taken presumably from
traditional Japanese pattern books (See No. 324).
Godwin's sketchbooks in the Print Room of the Victoria
and Albert Museum contain many drawings and details
of furniture in the Anglo-Japanese style and one is drawn
to the conclusion that Godwin not only made use of the
style to satisfy the needs of fashion but was also using it
as a vehicle for his own exuberant invention (See the satinwood cabinet (279) and
Nos. 280-286)

Cabinet by James Lamb

The cabinet by Lamb of Manchester (No. 299) with
its considered proportions and impeccable finish shows
the influence of Godwin (and to a lesser extent that of
Talbert), on one of the finest Victorian cabinet-makers.
Although Thomas Jeckyll design for the woodwork of
the Peacock Room (decorated by Whistler for F. R.
Leyland in 1877) is well known, Jeckyll himself has always
been a rather mysterious figure. (Mark Girouard with his
account of Jeckyll's association with the Greens of Ken
Hill in The Victorian Country House has helped shed some
light on the Jeckyll mystery). We now have the
opportunity of seeing what is probably the largest
collection of Jeckyll's work to be shown at one time.
(The earliest illustration of work by Jeckyll is a set of
wrought iron gates made by the Norwich firm of Barnard,
Bishop and Barnard, with whom he was to have a long
association. The gates were illustrated in the Art Journal
of 1862 and show Jeckyll to have had a thorough grasp of
the Gothic style of the 1860s, although there are the
idiosyncrasies and the same spirit of playful invention
that we see in his later work). [Note: three decades after this Fine Art Society exhibition, the first major study of this architect-designer appeared: Susan Web Soros and Catherine Arbuthnot's Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer, 1828-1881 (New Haven: Yale UP, 2003). GPL.]

Left: Sideboard designed by Thomas Jeckyll

Right: Cabinet designed by Thomas Jeckyll

Jeckyll would have had his first opportunity of seeing
Japanese work, like his contemporaries, at the Exhibition
of 1862. But unlike Godwin, who was impressed by the
Japanese sense of structure (as is evident from his
sketchbooks), Jeckyll appears to have been particularly
taken with Japanese decoration, especially with its simple
and effective geometrical patterns. The large cabinet from
Ken Hill (No. 291), probably the earliest of the three
pieces lent by Sir Stephen and Lady Lycett Green, makes
use of traditional Japanese carved pattern, although in
structure the cabinet resembles the Jacobean style that
Talbert turned to in the 1870s. The sideboard from Ken
Hill (No. 292), a splendidly original piece, also Jacobean in
structure, makes similar use of Japanese carved pattern.
The overmantel (No. 293) while incorporating Japanese
plates and panels makes no structural concessions
to Japan. The two pieces that Jeckyll designed for
Alexander Ionides are closer to Japanese originals than
the Ken Hill furniture (See Nos. 289-290).
Although Christopher Dresser expressed firm views on
the design of furniture, little of his own work appears to
survive and it is uncertain how many of his published
designs were actually executed. Dresser disliked the use of
elaborate inlaying and also excessive reliance on the
natural grain of wood for effect which tended to destroy
the "unit." of a piece of work. He also criticised the
furniture of William Burges for its "doll's house"
appearance.

Wardrobe designed by Dr. Christopher Dresser for Bushloe House, Leicestershire

The Bushloe House furniture (Nos. 274-276) is
important, not only because of the rarity of Dresser's
furniture, but because it demonstrates the radical
simplicity of his work. The wardrobe embodies
the two main elements in Dresser's decorative
vocabulary -- the "idea" or "conventionalised" and the
grotesque; the striking colour scheme is a product of the
elaborate chromatic theory (developed by George Field)
that he had studied in his youth. Colour, like all elements
in a Dresser design, could not be left to chance.
It is hard to detect Japanese features in Dresser's
furniture. He had stated his position in 1882 in Japan,
its Architecture, Art and Art Manufactures ". . . I do not wish
to destroy our art and substitute for it the Japanese style
... we may borrow what is good from all peoples; but we
must distil all that we borrow through our own minds."

Piano designed by the Audsleys

The Audsley brothers, successful Liverpool architects are
now probably best remembered for two fine
chromolithographic books, their superbly illuminated
Sermon on the Mount (London, 1861) -- in the Owen Jones
manner -- and Polychromatic Decoration (London, 1882).
The Audsleys were also responsible for a standard work
on ornament Outlines of Ornament (London, 1881). The
piano (No. 271) has the same disciplined richness that
characterises their books.

Related materials

References

The Aesthetic Movement and the Cult of Japan. London: The Fine Art Society, 1972. Pp. 41-42.

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